"I Stand Alone" with Gaspar Noe, US Distribs Nearing

One of the high spots of this year’s New York Film Festival, is GasparNoe’s astoundingly written and realized “I Stand Alone.” Think Celinewith a splattering of Bukowski. Godard as re-configured by David Lynch.On the other hand, don’t think. Just experience. The film is a dark lookat a white French misanthropic butcher who’s certain all the miseries inhis life would dematerialize if Arabs, blacks and gays would bemassacred and if women once again became malleable as the Lord meantthem to be. Although Noe’s feature debut has not yet been picked up for USdistribution, Strand Releasing has showed “strong interest” in the film,along with a number of other distributors.

Amazingly, this is not the most notorious film Mr. Noe has helmed. Ifyou’re born under a lucky star, you’ll come across his safe sex short onheterosexual sodomy commissioned by the French government and sponsoredby such companies as Kodak. If this were ever broadcast on American TV,Jesse Helms would turn in his grave even before his death.

indieWIRE caught up with this delectable director at the Montreal WorldFilm Festival, and our conversation went sort of like this:

indieWIRE: Has “I Stand Alone” already opened in France?

Gaspar Noe: No, the end of the year. It was made over 4 years withabsolutely no money because it was refused all around in France. Peoplesaid, “Come back with a real film. Not with this. Now do a movie withactors and with a real script.” And it’s funny finally because all myfriends who were directing movies under much more normal conditions weremaking fun of me. “What are you doing? Why don’t you make a normalmovie?” I’m happy that I finished it. We almost went bankrupt in themiddle of the production. I’m happy that I went all the way through andnow it’s complete.

iW: This is one of the best written scripts I’ve ever heard. Are you awriter? (Noe mistakes “writer” for “reader.”)

Noe: No, not at all.

iW: But the screenplay . . .

Noe: I don’t read much. I think I read two novels every year and that’sall.

iW: But no one coming away from your film could say less than thatyou’re a brilliant writer. If your screenplay came out in book form,people would buy it and be blown away.

Noe: A lot of people tell me that I should. Even if it’s just a screenplayand not a novelized version of the screenplay. They say that I shouldpublish it.

iW: Do you know the works of R. Crumb?

Noe: I’m a big, big fan of R. Crumb. In the beginning I wanted to becomea comic book writer.

iW: R. Crumb lives in France. Have you met him?

Noe: Never.

iW: Would one say the purpose of your film is to expose the in-depth,emotional life of a bigoted Frenchman who feels he’s losing his footingin his own country and times?

Noe: It could be set in Scotland, in New York or anywhere else. It’sjust that the background is France of today. But it’s more the movieabout a man and his moral and existentialist problems. There’s somethingthat you have in France today that you don’t really have in Brazil or inother countries. It’s like …. There’s some kind of selfishness thatyou only find in Europe.

iW: We’ve always had a picture of a Frenchman as a white chap with aberet whose family has lived for centuries in France. Now there are somany minorities there: blacks, Arabs, gays. A minority member who seesyour film will no doubt exclaim, “Oh, my God! This is whom we’re dealingwith. This is the only film to ever capture the inner workings of aperson like this.”

Noe: In France, it’s weird because the minorities don’t behave asminorities as they do in North America. It’s just like they want to bepart of the whole thing. Also in France, you have a very odd thing. Forexample, some people tell you, “Oh, this guy is French and that guy isJewish. It’s like you cannot be Jewish and French at the same time. If aguy is black, they wouldn’t say he is French. They’d say he’s black.When they say “French,” it means that a man’s white, and hisgrandparents were French.

iW: Moving on to inspiration . . .

Noe: There was one movie that really inspired this one: “Straw Dogs.”You know the rape scene in “Straw Dogs” was so powerful. That was theonly time I ever walked out of a theater because I was so scared.There’s another film called “Angst” or “Fear” which in France wascalled “Schizophrenia” but it was banned theatrically. It’s got an X-ratingso it never came out. It could maybe come out today. It’s Austrian. Oneof the masterpieces of the decade. The director never did another moviethough. He had too many debts so he stopped directing.

iW: Now you personally, do you love life or do you see miseryeverywhere?

Noe: No, no, no, no. Of course, I like life. I tell a terrible story butyou can see I am having fun with life because the style of the movie isvery joyful.

iW: It’s a black comedy.

Noe: Most people only see the black aspect and not the humor in it. Itall depends on your perception of life. If it’s too close to yourpersonal perception of life you cannot the see the humor. If it’s farfrom your perception of life, you can see it. Sometimes depressivepeople don’t react very well to “I Stand Alone.”